Celebrating Autumn in the winter.
Posted on 23 December 2010 by The DV8
http://thedv8.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/celebrating-autumn-in-the-winter/There are a lot of heroes to celebrate in the fight for equality in the United States. In just one small part of that fight — the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell — the center of attention and, for many, the hero of the movement, has been Dan Choi. And rightly so.
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It's Autumn (first on the left in the photo above) I want to talk about today. Autumn is a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Navy who retired in 2000 and came out as transgender in 2003. She has been one of the most tireless and most vocal advocates of the repeal of DADT. She was arrested in front of the White House, along with Dan Choi and others, in two protests. Police officers called her an "impersonator," "shim," and "it." They said "it" had a lot of nerve, wearing a Navy uniform. Autumn was also singled out for abuse by the contemptible Peter LaBarbera, who held her up to his Christ-loving followers as some kind of demon. All the activists in the struggle paid a price; Autumn paid in ways most of the rest didn't. Autumn, as much as anybody, had a right to be at that signing yesterday, and she was. And she was smiling.
It was kind of bittersweet to see Autumn celebrating that signing.
